Broadband technologies jumpstart rural economies

There is growing discussion about the investment required to implemented 5G and how that investment is going to be recovered. Caroline Chan, Intel VP and GM of the 5G Infrastructure Division on the edge of 5G.

“How do 5G use cases benefit the enterprise?” she pondered during a panel conversation hosted by Cradlepoint in Austin, Texas, during a week of colocated 5G conferences. “That’s my personal interest–the enterprise edge. We all know that 5G, the way that we talk about, is going to take a lot of investment. Where are we going to get the return on investment?” Chan noted her involvement in 5G groups that look specifically at vertical use cases for automotive and industrial automation, for example. “The trick is, if you want to get more money, more than just a SIM card, you have to have enterprise,” she said.

My question is who is going to provide the investment for rural 5G? How will that investment go to be recovered, there are few automotive and industrial plants to automate and control through low latency IoT-type devices in rural communities? Low latency IoT applications is a core sales feature of 5G. How may low latency industrial applications exist in rural communities what would produce the revenue streams needed to recover the investment mentioned by Chan?

Rural communities need to examine their 5G expectations and consider some alternatives. Over 750 rural communities across the country have or are developing community fiber networks. More details HERE.